Forus and American Gastroenterological Association Partner to Improve Medication Access for GI Patients
Forus, a healthcare technology company specializing in artificial intelligence-powered medication access and prior authorization solutions, has announced a strategic partnership with the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), one of the leading professional organizations dedicated to advancing digestive health and gastroenterology care. The collaboration aims to improve access to prescription medications for the more than 60 million Americans living with digestive diseases by addressing many of the administrative and financial barriers that often delay treatment.
The partnership brings together two organizations with complementary strengths. While AGA is recognized for developing evidence-based clinical guidelines, advancing research, and advocating for both gastroenterologists and patients, Forus contributes an AI-powered platform designed to streamline the often-complex journey from a physician writing a prescription to a patient receiving their medication.
Together, the organizations hope to reduce delays in treatment, improve patient outcomes, and create a more efficient medication access process for individuals managing gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
Addressing a Persistent Challenge in Digestive Healthcare
Digestive diseases affect tens of millions of Americans every year and encompass a wide range of chronic and acute conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), celiac disease, chronic liver diseases, pancreatic disorders, colorectal conditions, and numerous other gastrointestinal illnesses.
Many of these diseases require long-term treatment with advanced prescription medications, including biologics, specialty drugs, immunomodulators, and targeted therapies.
Although significant scientific advances have expanded the number of effective treatment options available, patients frequently encounter administrative hurdles before they are able to begin therapy.
Among the most common barriers are:
- Prior authorization requirements
- Insurance coverage restrictions
- Medication denials
- Lengthy appeals processes
- Pharmacy coordination issues
- Financial affordability challenges
- Specialty pharmacy routing complexities
These obstacles can delay treatment for days, weeks, or even months, potentially worsening disease progression and negatively affecting patient quality of life.
The new collaboration seeks to address these issues through a combination of clinical expertise, healthcare advocacy, and artificial intelligence.
The Growing Burden of Prior Authorization
Prior authorization has become one of the most significant administrative challenges facing physicians across multiple medical specialties.
Before many prescription medications are approved by insurance companies, healthcare providers must submit detailed clinical documentation demonstrating that a therapy is medically necessary.
The process often requires physicians and clinical staff to complete extensive paperwork, respond to requests for additional information, and sometimes file appeals after initial denials.
For gastroenterologists treating chronic digestive diseases, these requirements can consume valuable clinical resources while delaying patient access to important therapies.
Patients may experience interruptions in care, prolonged symptoms, disease progression, or increased anxiety while waiting for insurance approvals.
The administrative burden also contributes to physician burnout, as clinical teams spend increasing amounts of time navigating insurance requirements rather than focusing directly on patient care.
How Forus Uses Artificial Intelligence
Forus has developed an artificial intelligence-powered platform designed to automate many of the complex administrative tasks associated with medication access.
The company’s technology creates a digital network connecting healthcare providers, insurance companies, pharmacies, and financial assistance programs throughout the medication access process.
Rather than requiring clinical staff to manually complete multiple administrative steps, the platform helps coordinate and automate numerous activities involved in obtaining prescribed medications.
Its capabilities include:
- Prior authorization management
- Appeals processing
- Financial assistance identification
- Pharmacy routing
- Prescription coordination
- Insurance workflow automation
- Medication access tracking
According to the company, the platform operates across multiple drug manufacturers, insurance providers, and pharmacy networks nationwide.
Importantly, Forus notes that its services are provided at no cost to either healthcare providers or patients.
By reducing administrative complexity, the company aims to accelerate the time between prescription and treatment initiation.
The Role of the American Gastroenterological Association
Founded to advance digestive health and improve patient care, the American Gastroenterological Association is one of the largest professional organizations representing gastroenterologists, hepatologists, researchers, and digestive disease specialists.
The organization plays several important roles within the healthcare community.
Among its primary activities are:
- Developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines
- Supporting scientific research
- Providing physician education
- Promoting quality improvement initiatives
- Advocating for healthcare policy changes
- Representing the interests of GI clinicians
- Improving patient care standards
AGA’s clinical recommendations influence digestive disease management throughout the United States and internationally.
The organization also works closely with policymakers, insurers, patient advocacy groups, and healthcare organizations to improve access to evidence-based treatments.
Through its partnership with Forus, AGA expects to gain additional real-world insights into the practical barriers patients encounter after physicians prescribe medications.
Combining Clinical Guidance with Real-World Access Data
One of the unique aspects of the collaboration is the integration of clinical expertise with real-world medication access information.
Although physicians frequently prescribe treatments based on strong clinical evidence and established practice guidelines, patients often experience obstacles unrelated to the medical appropriateness of those therapies.
For example, a medication may be fully supported by clinical guidelines yet still require lengthy insurance approval processes before treatment can begin.
By leveraging Forus’ nationwide medication access network, AGA hopes to better understand where delays occur, why certain medications encounter higher denial rates, and which administrative barriers most significantly affect patient care.
These insights may help the organization strengthen future advocacy initiatives aimed at improving healthcare policies and insurance practices.
Supporting Better Advocacy for Patients
Patient advocacy represents a central objective of the new partnership.
Individuals living with chronic digestive diseases frequently require lifelong management involving expensive specialty medications.
When treatment initiation is delayed, patients may experience:
- Increased disease activity
- Higher hospitalization risk
- Greater need for emergency care
- Reduced quality of life
- Increased healthcare costs
- Emotional stress
- Treatment interruptions
AGA has long worked alongside physicians, patient organizations, and healthcare stakeholders to identify these challenges.
The addition of real-world medication access data from Forus could provide new evidence supporting policy reforms intended to simplify access to medically necessary therapies.
Such information may also assist discussions with insurance companies regarding prior authorization requirements and coverage policies.
Enhancing Clinical Guidance
Beyond advocacy, the collaboration may also strengthen AGA’s clinical resources for physicians.
Clinical practice guidelines traditionally focus on selecting the most appropriate treatment based on available scientific evidence.
However, real-world implementation often depends upon whether patients can actually obtain prescribed medications.
Understanding common insurance requirements, denial patterns, and access barriers may help physicians make more informed treatment decisions while anticipating potential administrative challenges.
Future educational resources developed through the partnership may incorporate practical strategies for navigating medication access alongside clinical recommendations.
This could improve the overall value of guidance provided to AGA members.
Leadership Perspective
Alison Kim, PhD, Vice President of Clinical and Scientific Affairs at AGA, emphasized that improving patient access has long been a priority for the organization.
She noted that AGA has consistently collaborated with clinicians, patient advocates, and stakeholders across digestive healthcare to better understand why patients experience difficulty obtaining prescribed medications.
According to Kim, partnering with Forus provides the organization with another valuable resource for identifying medication access barriers and supporting advocacy efforts involving insurance providers, policymakers, and healthcare professionals.
The collaboration aligns with AGA’s broader mission of advancing digestive healthcare while ensuring patients receive timely, evidence-based treatment.
Advancing Access Through Technology
Sahir Jaggi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Forus, highlighted the rapid pace of innovation occurring within gastroenterology.
Scientific advances have produced increasingly sophisticated therapies capable of improving outcomes for patients with complex digestive diseases.
However, Jaggi emphasized that treatment innovation alone is insufficient if patients cannot access those therapies efficiently.
According to him, the partnership creates an opportunity to connect evidence-based clinical recommendations with the realities patients experience during the medication approval process.
He described this connection as central to the mission behind the development of the Forus platform.
By automating administrative workflows and improving visibility into medication access, the company hopes to reduce delays while supporting both physicians and patients.
Leveraging Artificial Intelligence Across Healthcare
The collaboration reflects a broader trend toward integrating artificial intelligence into healthcare administration.
Although AI often receives attention for diagnostic imaging, disease prediction, and clinical decision support, administrative applications may also generate significant improvements in healthcare delivery.
Medication access remains an area characterized by repetitive documentation, manual workflows, fragmented communication, and extensive coordination among multiple stakeholders.
Artificial intelligence offers opportunities to automate many of these processes, potentially reducing administrative workload while improving efficiency.
Healthcare providers increasingly recognize that streamlining administrative operations can contribute to better patient outcomes by allowing clinicians to focus more time on direct patient care.
Opportunities for Future Collaboration
The partnership between Forus and AGA has been designed as a long-term initiative rather than a single project.
As collaboration expands, both organizations anticipate developing additional resources for the gastroenterology community.
Potential future activities may include:
- Joint research findings
- Educational resources for clinicians
- Medication access reports
- Best practice recommendations
- Advocacy initiatives
- Healthcare policy guidance
- Data-driven analyses of access barriers
These efforts could help identify trends affecting patients nationwide while supporting broader improvements in medication accessibility.
The organizations also expect the collaboration to demonstrate how technology companies and medical societies can work together to improve healthcare delivery across an entire clinical specialty.
A Model for the Future of Healthcare Access
Beyond gastroenterology, the partnership may serve as a model for addressing medication access challenges across other medical specialties.
Many fields—including oncology, rheumatology, neurology, dermatology, and rare disease care—face similar administrative barriers involving prior authorization and specialty medications.
If successful, the collaboration could illustrate how artificial intelligence platforms combined with professional medical organizations can generate actionable insights that improve healthcare delivery at both the patient and system levels.
Rather than focusing solely on technological innovation, the partnership emphasizes practical implementation by addressing one of healthcare’s most persistent operational challenges: ensuring that patients receive the medications their clinicians prescribe.
The strategic partnership between Forus and the American Gastroenterological Association represents a significant effort to improve medication access for millions of Americans living with digestive diseases. By combining AGA’s expertise in clinical guidance, research, and patient advocacy with Forus’ AI-powered medication access platform, the organizations aim to reduce delays associated with prior authorizations, insurance approvals, financial assistance, and pharmacy coordination.
As the collaboration evolves, it is expected to generate new insights into medication access barriers, strengthen advocacy initiatives, enhance clinical resources for gastroenterologists, and support more efficient healthcare delivery. Ultimately, the partnership reflects a growing recognition that improving patient outcomes requires not only innovative therapies but also streamlined systems that ensure those treatments reach patients quickly, efficiently, and without unnecessary administrative obstacles.
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